SerenBe Day Spa
11103 N. 56th Street
Temple Terrace, FL 33617
Phone: 813.899.2999
License # MM10686

Licensed Massage Therapists
Licensed Estheticians
Licensed Nail Specialists

Hours of Operation:
Tuesday-Friday: 10am - 8pm
Saturday: 9am - 5pm

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Cancellation Policy
Our specialists are in considerable demand. Kindly observe a 24 hour cancellation policy. Cancellations less than 24 hours or no-shows will have to pay 50% of their service on their credit card. If appointment was reserved with a gift certificate their certificate will be forfeited.

As always, Visa, MasterCard and Discover are accepted.

Inside This Issue:

Message From Kelly
Facials: Do Something Wonderful for Yourself
Post Workout Muscle Relief Herb Blend
Vital Qi
Got Neck Pain? Check Your Breathing

Message From Kelly

It is hard to believe that it is 2003. Now that you have spent the last couple of months taking care of and looking out for other people in your life...

It's time to focus on YOU!!

Make a mental list. How is your body? Your mind? Your spirit? When is the last time you checked in on yourself?

Now take a second to ask yourself these questions...

Is your body in need of a regular massage?
Could your skin be rejuvenated?
Is it time to put away the make-up and still wake up feeling beautiful?
Could you benefit from restructuring and realigning your body through the methods of structural integration?
Are you looking for a holistic approach for healthcare offered through Traditional Chinese Medicine?

If you answered "YES" to any of those questions, we can help.

Isn't it your turn to have someone take care of you?

Kelly Seeley, Licensed Massage Therapist (#MA0010501) specializes in Trigger Point Therapy Neuromuscular Therapy, Shiatsu (accupressure), Teaching Infant Massage and Pre-natal Massage, and Aromatherapy at SerenBe Day Spa.

For more information or to schedule a free consultation, please call 813.899.2999 or send an email to kelly@naturalhealthstudio.com.

Facials: Do Something Wonderful for Yourself

Welcome to 2003!

I hope everyone had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year. I'm sure we've all made a few resolutions.

Taking better care of ourselves is a popular choice.

In this issue I'd like to discuss the importance of taking care of your skin. Facials were once thought of as a luxury, but are now viewed as a benefit to our health and well-being. They provide massage to stimulate red blood cells, which in turn encourages production of collagen, a major component for skin elasticity and strength.

Facials also aid in lymphatic drainage, which helps rid toxins from underlying tissue, thereby promoting clean, toned and healthy skin. Another important aspect of a facial is exfoliation. This process removes the top layer of dead skin cells to expose a fresh, new surface, which aids in cellular renewal.

So, now while you're doing something wonderful for yourself, I want to mention another benefit that can be summed up in one word:

RELAXATION.

For one hour you can escape to wherever your mind leads, perhaps a rainforest or tropical island. Wherever you feel no stress is where you should be.

The most common question I am asked is "How often should a person receive a facial?" The answer to that question varies for each individual. On a maintenance program, you should receive a facial monthly. If you have specific skin care concerns, I offer free consultations and can go over methods of treatment with you at that time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Laura Galvin-Campbell, Licensed Esthetician (FB-0720778) specializes in Skin Care, Waxing, and Microdermabrasion at SerenBe Day Spa.

For more information or to schedule a free consultation, please call 813.899.2999 or send an email to laura@naturalhealthstudio.com.

Post Workout Muscle Relief Herb Blend

It's that time of the year!!! Many of us have made the New Years resolution to get off our behinds and start exercising.

Great!!! The only problem is that is now what hurts from overdoing it. Never fear, we have you covered.

Follow this recipe for a nice relaxing bath that will also sooth those aching muscles! (Note: we also have this and other mixtures available for sale at the studio)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons dried lavender
2 tablespoons bay leaves
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
2 tablespoons dried rosemary

Instructions:

Place herbs in a cheese cloth and tie securely.
Steep herbs (in a glass bowl) for 15 min to 3 hours (the longer the more potent)
Pour entire infusion into tepid (100°) bath, soak for no longer than 15-20 min.
Pat dry.
Enjoy the effects!

Vital Qi

The New Year is here and I hope that everyone has a healthy and happy 2003. Spring is a season of growth...growth of everything including many diseases. During this period, prevention of illness is critical.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the prevention should start with supporting vital Qi inside the body thus protecting the body from pathogens.

Below are five recommended methods to support vital Qi inside the body:

Promote Good Mental Health. Sudden, violent and persistent emotional stimuli can give rise to dysfunction of Qi and blood. This leads to the imbalance of Yin and Yang and causes various diseases. Therefore, we must do our best to develop optimistic characters and keep a peaceful mind.

Keep a proper diet. Food and drink are the essence of the body. Improper diet damages the spleen and stomach. We must take care of our diet by taking meals regularly; avoid overeating or undereating and limiting fats and sweets.

Do moderate physical exercise. Life lies in movement. Frequent physical exercise can help smooth the flow of Qi and blood, improve our physical state, and reduce the occurrence of disease.

Bolster immunity through complementary medicine. Taking preventative measures such as acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are very effective ways to improve the immune system, and they greatly reduce the risk of disease.

Keep regular patterns in life that still allow for flexibility. This brings all the other four suggestions together. Life has many unexpected turns.

Many of these suggestions are easiest to implement when life is going well, but the reality is that we come across speed bumps along the way. This is why is it important to learn how to adapt these suggestions into your life to the degree that you not only avoid getting sidetracked during the tough times, but they can actually support you during these times.

Dr. Yan Gong, Acupuncture Physician (AP 1061) specializes in Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Pain Management, and Primary Care at SerenBe Day Spa.

For more information or to schedule a free consultation, please call 813.899.2999 or send an email to dr.gong@naturalhealthstudio.com.

Got Neck Pain? Check Your Breathing

As a massage therapist, especially one specializing in structural integration and myofascial therapy, I often work with pain cases.

Not taking into account injuries (back injuries from lifting, car accidents, sports injuries), which have an obvious cause and effect, one still sees many of the same chronic pain problems again and again. One of the most common problems is neck pain.

Why is it that so many people have such bad neck pain? Stress is often a common culprit, but let's look deeper and see if we can uncover some other explanations. What I want to focus on in this edition of our newsletter is the impact of breath and poor breathing habits.

First we will give a run down on the importance of breathing (other than the obvious importance of keeping us alive), and how stress can negatively influence proper breathing. Next we will look briefly at the anatomy of breath, and finally what we can do to improve our breathing capacity.

The focus for this quarter is on the muscular-skeletal implications of poor breathing, but I would like to briefly mention that equally important are the biochemical implications. Simply put, breathing affects the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen in the body, which in turn affects the body's pH balance.

Many people overbreathe, or hyperventilate, usually with quicker and shallower breaths. This continuous hyperventilation causes the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood to be too low, which causes the uptake and utilization of oxygen to be impaired.

This can set one up for a whole list of potential problems such as chronic headaches, weakened immune response, digestive problems and even fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. On the muscular system, the implications of poor breathing can also be detrimental and set the body up for pain.

Breathing is an automatic process, but a muscular process nonetheless. Breathing is controlled primarily by the diaphragm, with the aid of many other muscles in the mid-chest and upper abdomen. Most people are aware of this, but what comes as a surprise to many is that breathing is also assisted by many of the muscles in the neck and upper chest.

These are accessory breathing muscles, which lift the upper ribs as the breath comes into the chest, especially when we exert ourselves during exercise. Chronic hyperventilation, especially if it is primarily chest breathing and not enough diaphragmatic breathing, overuses these muscles 22,000 times a day!

After enough overuse, it is easy to see how pain patterns such as neck pain are so prominent.

Changing how we breathe is not as easy as simply deciding to breath better. First of all, we need to practice and retrain the brain (see breathing exercise below). To complicate matters, if we have been breathing incorrectly for years, the soft tissue (muscles and connective tissue) may have become somewhat restrictive.

This is usually most apparent at the lower ribs. When I observe clients attempting a deep breath, this looks like there are tight straps or belts restricting movement in the lower ribs, abdomen and sometimes even the chest. The lack of movement in these regions over the years (from poor breathing) causes the soft tissue to solidify and form restrictive bands of connective tissue.

At this point the poor breathing habits are reinforced by a general lack of movement, which, in turn, reinforces poor breathing. Thus a vicious cycle is developed and the task of breathing is carried out by the accessory muscles, including many in the neck.

For this reason I often begin working with clients by freeing the tissue at and around the rib cage. In the ten-session structural integration model developed by Ida Rolf, this is the explicit goal of the first session; but whether I am taking a client through the ten sessions, or just working with them more generally, I always view this aspect of the work as crucial.

Proper breathing should be considered a necessary ingredient for anyone interested in attaining deep and lasting health.

Breathing Exercise:

Sit crosslegged on the floor with your back straight and your hands on your knees.
Quiet your thoughts and focus on your breath. Do not force the breath, just pay attention to all of the stages.
When you are ready to begin, bring your stomach in on the exhale as far as is comfortable.
On the inhale expand your stomach completely.
Once the stomach is expanded, let the breath travel slowly into the chest while letting your shoulders float up.
At the completion of the inhale, hold the breath for 5 seconds
Reverse these steps during the exhale, finishing with the stomach coming in.
Repeat for a total of 5 to 10 times.

Brian Lau, Licensed Massage Therapist (MA 30879) specializes in Structural Integration, Myofascial Therapy, Postural Analysis, and Reflexology at Natural Health Studio.

For more information or to schedule a free consultation, please call 813.899.2999 or send an email to brian@naturalhealthstudio.com.